Hi Bill,
The variable density view is enabled in the 3d viewer from the "Attribute #2" tab in the seismic dialog. The sub-nodes stuff is just an extra feature to allow users to show or hide the overlay faster, without having to re-open the seismic dialog. Anyway, the main control for this remains the "Attribute #2" tab.
One of the approaches for the selection of the sections will be the selection event broadcast from the map viewer, I think. Ticket #1109 was created and I added some functionality for this. To replicate: enable cursor broadcast in map viewer, enable cursor receive in the section viewer, view the same SeismicSurvey3d in both viewers. Move the cursor in the map viewer and do a MB3 in the map viewer in order to issue a data selection event. The PostStack3dRenderer.setCurrentPosition() is called when the event is received, but for now it just displays a message to the console. Anyway, currently both an inline and xline positions are broadcasted. There is ticket #1108 opened for Duncan or me to discuss with you how we can improve the interaction in the map viewer such as only one line position to be broadcasted and the user to be able to switch between inline and crossline there.
Regards,
Dan